The teacher had seen my terrified expression and calmly asked me if I was okay. Of course I had answered with a simple “yes” which was followed by her soft voice reassuring me that everything would be fine and that I could sit down. She introduced me instead of myself and it had made me disappointed because I couldn’t overcome the fear of standing out.

Even as a child, I have never in my life wanted to stand out of the other people. I simply refused to let my existence to be noticed as much as possible. Getting everybody`s attention and standing out had been my worst nightmares ever since I was young.

Every time I had accidentally caught somebody`s attention, my palms were sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy.

I spent that day full of embarrassment. Between every class we had around 20 minutes of break. It was time for the first break as I raised my hand, like the teacher taught us, and asked to be excused. She calmly agreed as I stood up and left the classroom.

I headed to the bathroom to wash my face when I heard other kids laughing in one of the bathroom stalls. They soon came out and I saw their faces. I recognized them. Lorrey and four other kids. I assumed they were his friends.

For some reason, they had a stern look, reminding me much of my father`s. There was silence as they slowly came up to me. Then suddenly, Lorrey broke the silence by saying “Adiel, isn`t it?”. I replied with a calm agreement not wanting to go any further into details. I turned around trying to stay calm, and as I looked in the mirror on the wall I saw them cornering me.

I had drawn attention to me and my hands started shaking. Lorrey and his friends had a chuckle at the sight.

I had just then realized what had I gotten myself into. They were classic school bullies.

Lorrey commented on the movement as he thought I was scared of him. In reality, I might have been terrified of drawing attention to myself, but I have never been scared to fight back if I had no other choice.

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I tried my best avoiding any trouble so I kept quiet. That only made Lorrey gain more confidence and support by his friends. One of his friends walked away from the circle and closed the door shut followed by a sound of a click. He locked the door. Then lorrey came closer to me and pushed me to the ground. As I fell I saw his egotistical figure looking proud of what he had just done.

Just as Lorrey had raised his hand at me - somebody entered the bathroom. Luckily, the person who entered the bathroom was the teacher, which meant I had been saved.

The teacher didn’t have such a warm smile that moment. I`d say she had more of a shocked and disappointed look. She entered and as the kids made room for her to pass, she gave me a hand. That’s when I saw it again.

That soft, heartwarming smile made me think of her as my second mother. I also smiled as I grabbed her hand. She pulled me on my feet and turned to the kids with an angry look. She yelled at them and I saw their sad faces. Their evil smile had turned into regret and sadness and she heightened her voice at them.

“Even though their smile was evil, it was still a smile. And a smile is not worth losing over such a trifle.” – I thought.

I turned to the teacher and said “it wasn’t their fault.”

Everybody`s reaction had a sudden change. I had analyzed everybody`s reaction. The teacher`s angry expression had changed into a warm smile again but mostly confusion. Lorrey and his friends, on the other hand, were confused but mostly just sad.

I think they understood why I had decided to stand up for them. They were ashamed of themselves and just looked down. The teacher asked me to explain what happened and I explained that I had accidentally pushed into them and that they thought it was on purpose.

As I explained that lie I saw their face. They sank deeper into shame. The teacher shook her head and smiled again. She just suggested we go back to class as the bell had rung 10 minutes ago.

We spent the rest of the day normally after that and Lorrey and his friends refused to get close to me.

My mother had been waiting for me to finish with school and i waved goodbye to the teacher as she waved back. The next day i was exited to go to school and see my teacher and classmates.

Although, that didn`t last long. The similar types of bullying continued happening over the week. On the other hand, one thing i noticed changing, was my mother`s smile. Her smile had slowly changed into a numb smile and sometimes she wouldn`t even do that when picking me up from school. That small detail soon enough turned into being late.

Sometimes the teacher would wait outside the school with me because my mom was running late. One time it was already night time when I was still waiting for my mom to pick me up. Sitting all alone on the bench, I had lost hope that she would come so I started walking home.